{"id":49507,"date":"2026-03-02T13:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=49507"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:51:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:51:54","slug":"us-mens-hockey-stars-tout-faith-after-gold-medal-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/us-mens-hockey-stars-tout-faith-after-gold-medal-win.html","title":{"rendered":"US Men\u2019s Hockey Stars Tout Faith After Gold Medal Win"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The White House<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After their history-making win against Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics, players from the US Men\u2019s hockey team are sharing their faith. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin shared his Olympic experience during his return to his team, the Carolina Hurricanes. After joking with press about whether or not to keep his gold medal on, Slavin turned to more serious matters. \u201cThe whole experience as a whole was awesome. First and foremost, you guys know me, you know where I stand with my faith and my purpose and the game of hockey and being able to have my family there to enjoy it with me, we give all the glory to God,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was such an amazing time, such a wonderful experience being able to glorify Him on a world stage, and to win gold doing it was so much fun. Whether we won gold, whether we didn\u2019t, we were still going to praise Him and give Him all the glory.\u201d Slavin played for 18 minutes during the championship game, with his defense assisting in Team USA\u2019s overtime win.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an opportunity Slavin doesn\u2019t take for granted given he missed two months of the Hurricanes\u2019 season after an injury. \u201cI just look at it with gratitude, all of it together. Whether it\u2019s the Games, the experience, the traveling, the food in Italy, all of it. Just gratitude and just happy to be able to experience it, and again, just thankful for God and protecting me while I was over there, but also through this season with the injuries that I had at the beginning of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cJust trusting in His timing with it all, and getting to a spot where I was healthy enough to go and play.\u201d He credited his faith for keeping him grounded. \u201cKnowing that whether it\u2019s the Olympic gold-medal game or whether it\u2019s an NHL preseason game, my mindset is still the same of I want to glorify God with the abilities He\u2019s given me and play with the confidence that He instills in me, knowing that I\u2019m not playing for the media, I\u2019m not playing for the approval of fans, of coaches, of players, whatever it is,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not out there searching for their approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Christian on the team is Tage Thompson, who took four shots during the game. Speaking to Sports Spectrum<\/em><\/a> in 2023, he shared about how his faith evolved after he turned 13. \u201cThat\u2019s where my faith really started to turn, from just going through the motions and a title of being a Christian to understanding the actual relationship part of walking with Christ and the sacrifice that He made for all of us,\u201d he said. \u201cI think when you take a step back,\u201d Thompson said, \u201cand realize that God\u2019s in control and He has a plan for you and His plan is far better than anything that we could ever imagine (Ephesians 3:20), you just kind of give it over to Him and sit back and enjoy the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After their history-making win against Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics, players from the US Men\u2019s hockey team are sharing their faith. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin shared his Olympic experience during his return to his team, the Carolina Hurricanes. After joking with press about whether or not to keep his gold medal on, Slavin turned to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":49510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nUS Men\u2019s Hockey Stars Tout Faith After Gold Medal Win<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After Team USA\u2019s Olympic gold, hockey star Jaccob Slavin gives glory to God and says faith\u2014not medals or praise\u2014defines how he plays.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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